DX LISTENING DIGEST 5-189, November 3, 2005 Incorporating REVIEW OF INTERNATIONAL BROADCASTING edited by Glenn Hauser, http://www.worldofradio.com Items from DXLD may be reproduced and re-reproduced only if full credit be maintained at all stages and we be provided exchange copies. DXLD may not be reposted in its entirety without permission. Materials taken from Arctic or originating from Olle Alm and not having a commercial copyright are exempt from all restrictions of noncommercial, noncopyrighted reusage except for full credits For restrixions and searchable 2005 contents archive see http://www.worldofradio.com/dxldmid.html NOTE: If you are a regular reader of DXLD, and a source of DX news but have not been sending it directly to us, please consider yourself obligated to do so. Thanks, Glenn For latest updates see our Anomaly Alert page: http://www.worldofradio.com/anomaly.html NEXT AIRINGS OF WORLD OF RADIO 1292: Thu 2130 WOR WWCR 15825 [Dec-Feb: 7465] Thu 2200 WOR World FM, Tawa, Wellington, New Zealand 88.2 Fri 0030 WOR R. Veronica 106.5 Fri 0100 WOR WTND-LP 106.3 Macomb IL Fri 0200 WOR ACBRadio Mainstream [repeated 4-hourly thru 2400] Fri 2000 WOR World FM, Tawa, Wellington, New Zealand 88.2 Fri 2100 WOR RFPI [repeated 4-hourly thru Sat 1700] Sat 0500 WOR VoiceCorps Reading Service, WOSU-FM subcarrier, cable Sat 0900 WOR WRN to Eu, Au, NZ, WorldSpace AfriStar, AsiaStar Sat 0955 WOR WNQM Nashville TN 1300 Sat 1100 WOR WPKN Bridgeport CT 89.5 & WPKM Montauk LINY 88.7 Sat 1700 WOR R. Veronica 106.5 Sat 1830 WOR WRN to North America [including Sirius Satellite Radio channel 140] Sat 2200 WOR WRMI 7385 [if back on air] Sun 0000 WOR Radio Studio X 1584 http://www.radiostudiox.it/ Sun 0330 WOR WWCR 5070 Sun 0400 WOR WBCQ 9330-CLSB Sun 0600 WOR World FM, Tawa, Wellington, New Zealand 88.2 Sun 0730 WOR WWCR 3215 Sun 0930 WOR WRMI 7385 [from WRN][if back on air] Sun 0930 WOR WRN to North America, also WLIO-TV Lima OH SAP [including Sirius Satellite Radio channel 140] Sun 0930 WOR KSFC Spokane WA 91.9 Sun 0930 WOR WXPR Rhinelander WI 91.7 91.9 100.9 Sun 0930 WOR WDWN Auburn NY 89.1 [unconfirmed] Sun 0930 WOR KTRU Houston TX 91.7 [occasional] Sun 1400 WOR KRFP-LP Moscow ID 92.5 Sun 1500 WOR WRMI 7385 [if back on air] Sun 1830 WOR WRN1 to North America [including Sirius Satellite Radio channel 140] Sun 2000 WOR RNI Mon 0400 WOR WBCQ 9330-CLSB Mon 0430 WOR WSUI Iowa City IA 910 Mon 0515 WOR WBCQ 7415 Mon 1900 WOR RFPI [repeated 4-hourly thru Tue 1500] Wed 0030 WOR WBCQ 7415 [usually but temporary] Wed 0100 WOR CJOY INTERNET RADIO plug-in required Wed 1030 WOR WWCR 9985 Latest edition of this schedule version, with hotlinks to station sites and audio, is at: http://www.worldofradio.com/radioskd.html WRN ON DEMAND [from Fri]: http://new.wrn.org/listeners/stations/station.php?StationID=24 OUR ONDEMAND AUDIO [also CONTINENT OF MEDIA, MUNDO RADIAL]: http://www.worldofradio.com/audiomid.html or http://wor.worldofradio.org WORLD OF RADIO 1292 (high version): (stream) http://www.w4uvh.net/wor1292h.ram (download) http://www.w4uvh.net/wor1292h.rm WORLD OF RADIO 1292 (low version): (stream) http://www.w4uvh.net/wor1292.ram (download) http://www.w4uvh.net/wor1292.rm (summary) http://www.worldofradio.com/wor1292.html [not yet] WORLD OF RADIO 1292 in true SW sound of Alex`s mp3: (stream) http://www.dxprograms.net/worldofradio_11-02-05.m3u (download) http://www.dxprograms.net/worldofradio_11-02-05.mp3 WORLD OF RADIO 1292 downloads in studio-quality mp3: (high) http://www.obriensweb.com/wor1292h.mp3 (low) http://www.obriensweb.com/wor1292.mp3 WORLD OF RADIO PODCAST: www.obriensweb.com/wor.xml (currently: 1288, Extra 61, 1289, Extra 62, 1290, 1291, 1292) DXLD YAHOOGROUP: Why wait for DXLD? A lot more info, not all of it appearing in DXLD later, is posted at our yg. Here`s where to sign up http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dxld/ ** ANTARCTICA. 15476, 1745 Sept 30, SIO 333, LRA36, R. Nacional Arcángel San Gabriel, LA music, Spanish (Ron Easey, Wrentham, Suffolk, Lowe HF225, Icom PCR1000, outdoor dipoles, Nov BDXC-UK Communication via DXLD) That was a Friday, but LRA-36 normally opens at 1800, and how did you get past Gabon on 15475? Music ANO plays can include Latin American, but they surely would not announce in Spanish (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** AUSTRALIA. I am again hearing RA on 17785 at 2318 UT Nov 1, despite its absence from the posted schedules. Nothing audible on 21740, which I suspect it replaces. This makes the entire schedules suspect, whatever dates may supposedly be associated with them, if any (Glenn Hauser, OK, WORLD OF RADIO 1292, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Hi Glenn, the schedule being sent out by Nigel Holmes of R. Australia shows 17785 at 2200-2400, 100 kW from Shepparton to Pacific and North America. The schedule on the web site is always wrong! 73, (Sean D. Gilbert G4UCJ/G4001SWL International Editor - WRTH (World Radio TV Handbook), Nov 2, WORLD OF RADIO 1292, DX LISTENING DIGEST) So here`s the REAL Radio Australia B-05 schedule, inconveniently sorted by: 1) transmitter site, 2) target area, 3) frequency, 4) daily or not, 5) time starting with local Australian morning, 6) language Brandon, Qsld; Darwin, NT; Dhabbaya, UAE; Shepparton, Vic.; Kranji, Singapore; Taiwan UTC language site kW target days kHz 2000-2200 English BRN 10 Pac daily 11660 2300-0900 English BRN 10 Pac daily 12080 2000-2200 English BRN 10 Pac daily 12080 2200-2300 BBC WS BRN 10 Pac daily 12080 0800-0900 English BRN 10 PNG daily 5995 1100-1400 English BRN 10 PNG daily 5995 2100-2200 English BRN 10 PNG daily 9660 2200-2300 BBC WS BRN 10 PNG daily 9660 2300-0800 English BRN 10 PNG daily 9660 0000-0030 Indonesian DRW 250 As daily 9630 2130-2330 Indonesian DRW 250 As daily 9630 0800-0830 Indonesian DRW 250 As mtwtf 11550 0400-0430 Indonesian DRW 250 As daily 17855 2200-0000 English DRW 250 As,Eu daily 12010 0000-0130 English DRW 250 As,Eu daily 17775 1400-1600 English DRW 250 SAs daily 11750 2330-0000 Vietnamese DRW 250 SEA daily 11820 0530-0600 Vietnamese DRW 250 SEA daily 17855 0400-0430 Indonesian DHA 250 As daily 21780 1400-1800 English SHP 100 As daily 6080 1300-1430 Chinese SHP 100 As daily 9475 1100-1300 English SHP 100 As daily 9475 1300-1430 Chinese SHP 100 As daily 11660 1430-1700 English SHP 100 As daily 11660 2130-2330 Indonesian SHP 100 As daily 11695 0900-1300 English SHP 100 As daily 11880 0030-0400 English SHP 100 As daily 15415 0430-0500 English SHP 100 As daily 15415 0530-0800 English SHP 100 As daily 15415 0830-0900 English SHP 100 As daily 15415 0930-1100 English SHP 100 As daily 15415 2330-0000 English SHP 100 As daily 15415 0000-0030 Indonesian SHP 100 As daily 15415 0400-0430 Indonesian SHP 100 As daily 15415 0500-0530 Indonesian SHP 100 As daily 15415 0900-0930 Indonesian SHP 100 As daily 15415 2130-2330 Indonesian SHP 100 As daily 15415 2330-0900 English SHP 100 As daily 17750 0500-0530 Indonesian SHP 100 As daily 17855 1430-1900 English SHP 100 As,Eu daily 9475 1900-2130 English SHP 100 As,Eu daily 9500 2200-0000 English SHP 100 As,Eu daily 15230 2100-2130 English SHP 100 As,PNG daily 11695 1400-1700 English SHP 100 Pac daily 7240 1700-2000 English SHP 100 Pac daily 9580 2100-2300 English SHP 100 Pac daily 13630 2200-0200 English SHP 100 Pac daily 17795 0800-1400 English SHP 100 Pac,NAm daily 9580 1700-2100 English SHP 100 Pac,NAm daily 11880 0700-0900 English SHP 100 Pac,NAm daily 13630 0500-0800 English SHP 100 Pac,NAm daily 15160 0200-0700 English SHP 100 Pac,NAm daily 15515 0000-0200 English SHP 100 Pac,NAm daily 17715 2200-0000 English SHP 100 Pac,NAm daily 17785 2100-2300 English SHP 100 Pac,PNG daily 15515 1800-2000 English SHP 100 PNG daily 6080 1100-1400 English SHP 100 PNG,As daily 9560 2300-0700 English SHP 100 PNG,As daily 13670 0700-0900 English SHP 100 PNG,J daily 9710 0200-0500 English SHP 100 PNG,J daily 21725 1400-1800 English SHP 100 PNG,Pac daily 5995 0900-1100 Tok Pisin SHP 100 PNG,Pac daily 5995 1100-1400 English SHP 100 PNG,Pac daily 6020 0900-1100 Tok Pisin SHP 100 PNG,Pac daily 6020 2000-2100 Tok Pisin SHP 100 PNG,Pac mtwtf 6080 1800-2000 English SHP 100 PNG,Pac daily 7240 2100-2200 English SHP 100 PNG,Pac daily 7240 2000-2100 Tok Pisin SHP 100 PNG,Pac mtwtf 7240 1600-2000 English SHP 100 PNG,Pac daily 9710 0900-1100 Tok Pisin SHP 100 PNG,Pac daily 9710 2000-2200 English SHP 100 PNG,Pac daily 11650 0900-1100 Tok Pisin SHP 100 PNG,Pac daily 12080 0000-0800 English SHP 100 PNG,Pac daily 15240 0800-1600 English SHP 100 PNG,Pac,NAm daily 9590 0000-0030 Indonesian SNG 250 As daily 6120 1300-1430 Chinese SNG 100 As daily 12010 2300-2330 Khmer SNG 100 SEA daily 9730 0530-0600 Vietnamese SNG 250 SEA daily 15280 0500-0530 Khmer SNG 250 SEA daily 15445 0900-0930 Indonesian TAI 250 As mtwtf 11550 2130-2330 Indonesian TAI 250 As daily 11550 0500-0530 Indonesian TAI 250 As daily 11745 0800-1130 English TAI 250 As daily 15240 2200-2330 English TAI 250 As daily 15240 0800-0830 Indonesian TAI 250 As daily 15415 2330-0000 Vietnamese TAI 250 SEA daily 15110 (via Nigel Holmes, RA, via Sean Gilbert, WRTH, DX LISTENING DIGEST) After 9590 closed Nov 3, I could hear RA on 9710 from *1600, tho not very well (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** BELGIUM [and non]. Radio Vlaanderen International schedule is now 0500-2300 on 1512, 0700-0800 on 13740 St. Petersburg, 0800-0900 on 9790 via Skelton, 1800-1900 on 6205 via St. Petersburg, 1900-2000 on 6040 via Skelton (Sergey Kolesov, Ukraine, Nov World DX Club Contact via Mike Barraclough, DXLD) ** CAMEROON [non]. 12130, R. Free Southern Cameroons, Oct 30 *1800- 1834 32332-34333 English, 1800 sign on with IS, Opening announce, Music, Talk; Sun only (Kouji Hashimoto, Japan, Japan Premium via DXLD) Radio Free Southern Cameroons heard opening 1600 Oct 30 after carrier had been on for some time. ID by man, "This is R. Free Southern Cameroons . . ," then long choral song followed by upbeat African vocalizing. Into talk by man about So. Cameroons -- "Do you know that . . . do you know that . . ." Talk about So. Cameroons and the UN at 1613, eventually went into a Q&A format. Music bridge 1632, more talk, African music from 1643, ID again 1650, I think announcer said "see you next week." Then drums and more upbeat African music. Program ended 1658, carrier off 1700. Decent signal level but very fadey, lots of ups and downs, plus local noise. All EG. Tnx Bernd Trutenau for the tip (J. Berg, MA, DXplorer-ML via CRW via DXLD) ** CANADA. Morning CBC shows Nov 3, via RCI 17820, 13655, 9515: The Current at 1428 was concluding an interview with Paul Falucci, who asserted that he had ``represented President Bush`` all over Canada. Who is this guy? Ex-US ambassador, that`s who. Gee, I thought his job was to represent all of us Americans, not just one. Then on Sounds Like Canada at 1535, interview with Moses Nymer [sp?], to be honoured tonight by the G.G. Seems he is responsible for starting up broadcasting institutions such as MuchMusic, and CITY-TV. He related how he wanted to get a callsign that spelt a word that meant something, and finally persuaded a bureaucrat to let him have a CI- call, tho until then, CI was not available in Ontario, as the second letter of broadcast callsigns was geographically dependent! I don`t think this is correct; there are and were broadcast callsigns all over Canada, starting with CF, CH, CJ, CK regardless of location, as there are now with CI-. I think CI had just not been available for any broadcast callsigns (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CANADA. DRM buzz spreading many kHz centred on 9800, at 1600 Nov 3, presumably Sackville as is the case later in the afternoon, but it went off shortly. Perhaps testing (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CANADA. I'm sure international audiences would appreciate Ideas. Sadly, those without Internet or satellite access are deprived of these insightful and wonderful programs. Are you listening, RCI? -- 73, (Ricky Leong, AB, DX LISTENING DIGEST) from http://www3.cbc.ca/sections/newsitem_redux.asp?ID=4114 STEPHEN LEWIS DELIVERS A HEARTBREAKING LOOK AT THE ASTONISHING STATE OF HUMANITY IN AFRICA --- Week of November 7-11, 2005 CBC Radio One`s thought-provoking program IDEAS will broadcast the 2005 Massey Lectures, Race Against Time, delivered by Stephen Lewis, United Nations Secretary-General`s Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa, the week of Monday, November 7 through Friday, November 11, 2005 at 9[:05] p.m. local time. The broadcast follows Lewis` sold-out Massey Lectures tour delivered over the past two weeks in Vancouver, Winnipeg, Montreal, Halifax and Toronto. IDEAS will air one lecture each night. Lewis delivers compelling insight into the problems that continue to threaten humankind-poverty, hunger, gender and class inequality. Drawing on anecdotes ranging from maddening to heartbreaking, Lewis shows why and how the international community is falling desperately short of the Millennium Development goals set by the UN in 2000 to address these issues. (...) Please visit http://www.cbc.ca/ideas/massey.html for more information on the Massey Lectures (via Ricky Leong, DXLD) ** CANADA. CBC PLANS TO BEAM UP RADIO 3 By ALEXANDRA GILL Wednesday, November 2, 2005 Posted at 4:24 AM EST From Wednesday's Globe and Mail http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20051102.wxcbc02/BNStory/Entertainment/ Vancouver --- Is public broadcasting relevant in a 500-channel universe? Will Canadian-content quotas survive in the age of digital downloads, Web-based streaming and mobile music? As federal cabinet committees huddle and the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission decides whether to put its review of conventional radio on hold, CBC Radio is quietly building a bold new satellite station that might shed some light on these hotly contested national debates. CBC Radio 3 is a souped-up revamp of the network's award-winning on-line magazine and various music sites that went on hiatus last spring. It will be available to satellite subscribers when Sirius Canada begins offering its services next month. According to the licences granted last June by the CRTC to Sirius and Canadian Satellite Radio Inc., the two satellite operators must offer at least eight Canadian-produced channels with 85 per cent Canadian content and a maximum of nine foreign channels for each Canadian channel. But other than sports, very little has been revealed about the Canadian content. Based out of Vancouver, CBC Radio 3 will operate as a 24-hour music station that plays independent Canadian artists across all genres, from rock and hip-hop to electronica and alt-country. "This is an unprecedented opportunity to get a lot of Canadian artists on radio, not just in Canada, but also exported to the United States," says executive producer Steve Pratt, a former executive with Chum Canada's MuchMusic. Although many cultural lobbyists have expressed concern about satellite radio making Canadian-content regulations impossible to control, Pratt says the current iPod craze proves that the music- consuming masses are dissatisfied with private commercial radio and hungry for new options. "And now that there's so much buzz around the Canadian indie music scene, this is a great time for us to launch." CBC Radio 3's daily program will also include short two- to three- minute music features from reporters stationed in Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal and Halifax. The station's four full-time hosts will be based in Vancouver. Three or four part-time hosts will also be hired, but could be based elsewhere. (At least 18 of the 20 to 25 staff members will be full-time, permanent employees.) The satellite station will also air the network's three-year-old CBC Radio 3 Redux program, which can still be heard on CBC Radio Two, but will now be broadcast live and slightly tweaked for each region. When the second phase of CBC Radio 3 is launched early next year, the lineup will add pretaped concerts and jam sessions recorded in CBC studios, plus a new website that amalgamates the network's other music sites (newmusiccanada.com, rootsmusiccanada.com and justconcerts.com). An interactive music player will offer pre-arranged play lists and allow listeners to customize their own. If it sounds confusing, that's because it is. "There aren't many models for the kind of radio station we're developing," says Pratt. "It's a bit of a weird hybrid and to a certain extent we have to figure it out as we go along. "The goal is not to ghettoize any genre of music or geographic areas. There are no time zones on the satellite-radio format because it can be heard anywhere around the world. It doesn't make sense to tell listeners to tune in for this hour or that hour so we made a deliberate choice to offer a wide sampling of musical styles and platforms." Pratt says that the overwhelming success of the CBC Radio 3 podcast is a good indication of the demand for alternative radio-delivery options. Since launching last June, the weekly subscriber-based podcast featuring a roster of all-Canadian music has been downloaded 660,000 times. In late June, the show was listed by iTunes in Canada and immediately became the most popular download in the country, a position it continues to hold most days. "We've been getting so much mind-boggling feedback from people all over the world who have suddenly discovered Canadian music and want to hear more," says Pratt, who hopes the new satellite channel will only fuel the buzz. "This is an amazing success story for Canadian music and it's only just begun." (via Harry van Vugt, Windsor, Ontario, Canada, DXLD) ** CHINA. Hulun Buir People's Broadcasting Station, Inner Mongolia, China sent me a prepared form QSL card and letter in Chinese after 36 days for my reception report in Chinese with 10 yuan. There was no personal signature in the QSL but official imprint of the station. According to the letter the station digitalized all the equipment before the transmitter in 2003, so the improved reception will be expected. Their recent schedule; Chinese 2130-1440 603 3900 kHz Mongolian 2125-1425 954 6080 kHz FM (Traffic Literature and Life) 2200-2400 104.6 MHz Address: 11 Shengli Dajie, Hailar, Hulun Buir, Nei Menggu, China Telephone; +86 8256100 2065 Fax; +86 8256100 2054 QSL card, letter, photographs are shown in my homepage http://www5a.biglobe.ne.jp/~BCLSWL/QSL0511.html (Takahito Akabayashi, Tokyo, Japan, Nov 2, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CUBA. Station speaking Spanish on 9600, good signal at 0122 UT November 3. Must be the planned reactivation of Radio UNAM, Mexico?? No, just RHC // 6060 and 11760, which will be a major prime-time obstacle to XEYU if it does try to come back on 9600. I think Cuba also uses 9600 in the morning. Nov 3 at 1606, open carrier on 11655; finally at 1609 audio cuts on with hum and distortion during sports news from R. Rebelde; 1630 into ``Hecho en Cuba`` music show until 1700, // 15570, and at 1700 the timecheck was for ``una en punto``, so Cuba has stayed on DST of UT -4 again this winter, keeping it in step with Bolivarian Venezuela rather than Gusano Miami. Confirmed still on DST at http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/ Kept listening to 11655 for the news hour and it went off at 1806* during music. There was another open carrier on 11875 at 1530, past 1600, which I suspected was Habana, but there was a tone test at 1605 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CUBA [and non]. Check out http://www.granma.cu/espanol/2005/octubre/juev27/45agresion.html for an interesting article on the US/Cuba radio war, The English version of this is at http://www.granma.cu/ingles/2005/octubre/lun31/45agresion.html (Owen Williamson, USA, CRW via DXLD) exaggerated ** CZECH REPUBLIC [non]. In 5-188 we had a report that earlier in Oct, R. Prague had started a relay via Sackville at 0330 on 6040. I did not manage to check that on UT Nov 2, but at 0415 I found R. Prague loud & clear on 6100. This too is not mentioned on their own website`s B-05 schedule at http://www.radio.cz/en/frequencies This was obviously a relay, likely Canada. Each transmission is nominally 27 minutes long, but this kept going at 0427 with a recitation of the entire English target, time and frequency schedule. But the transmission cut off at 0429 before the announcer got to North America, which was no doubt last on the list. It`s great to hear R. Prague so clearly, but they really need to get their act together so their actual transmissions match their published schedule match their announced schedule (Glenn Hauser, OK, WORLD OF RADIO 1292, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Sackville relays may sound like a good idea for North American listeners, but they present problems for at least much of the northeastern quadrant of the U.S. For example, at this point of the season (and others) in upstate NY, I rarely get useable reception of RCI or Radio Sweden in the evenings via Sackville. On top of that, Sackville has had and continues to have some well documented problems in operations that result in late start-ups, drop outs and mis- switches. In light of all this, it's somewhat puzzling that Sackville seems to be getting more relay business. It really is a mixed result (at best) for listeners (John Figliozzi, Halfmoon, NY, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) I think relays such as this are envisioned for Central & Western North America, which do work OK from a propagational standpoint. The Europeans already have Eastern NAm covered directly, or from other relays. Then on UT Nov 3 at 0127 I found a station in Spanish on 6100, but couldn`t figure out who it was, and did not catch any ID before a split-second of RCI IS and ID at 0129*. DW via Bonaire in German occupies 6100 at 0200-0400. Definitely R. Prague again the next night in English UT Nov 3 until 0429* on 6100 again giving transmission schedule, much weaker reception (gh, OK, DXLD) ** ETHIOPIA [non]. CLANDESTINES via GERMANY: 9620, V. of Path of Ethiopian Unity via DTK, Oct 30 *1830-1836, 35443- 35433 Amharic, 1830 sign on with IS, ID, Opening announce, Talk; Sun and Wed only. 9820, V. of Ethiopian Salvation via DTK, Oct 30 *1600-1610, 32432- 33433 Amharic, 1600 sign on with IS, ID and Opening announce, Opening music, Talk and Ethiopian pops music; Sun only 9820, V. of Oromo Liberation via DTK, Oct 30 *1700-1707, 24432 Oromo, 1700 sign on with opening music, ID, Opening announce, Talk; Sun and Tue and Wed and Fri only 9820, R. Freedom via DTK, Nov 01 *1630-1640 23432-34432 Somali, 1630 sign on with opening music, Opening announce, Kor`an, Talk; Tue and Fri only (Kouji Hashimoto, Japan, Japan Premium via DXLD) Other Ethiopian clandestines: 7560, V. of Delina (Presumed), Oct 30 1836-1840 35443 Tigrigna, Talk; Sun only 7590, V. of ENUF, Oct 30 *1700-1710 35333 Amharic, 1700 sign on with IS, ID, Opening announce, Talk; Sun and Fri only 7590, R. V. of Oromo Liberation Front, Oct 31 *1700-1706, 35333, Oromo, 1700 sign on with IS, ID, Local music, Talk; Mon and Thu only, 12115, Tensae Ethiopian V. of Unity, Oct 30 *1501-1512, 45444, Amharic, 1501 sign on with opening music, Opening announce, Talk (Kouji Hashimoto, Japan, Japan Premium via DXLD) ** FALKLAND ISLANDS [non]. B-05 BBCWS Calling the Falklands is now scheduled on 11680, Tue & Fri 2130-2145. Nov 1, I could not detect it aside the huge signal from BBC Caribbean service via Guiana French on 11675 at 2100-2200! In A-05 this went off conveniently at 2130, but 11675 seems to have picked up the former 15390 hour. Another service we can say goodbye to for at least a semiyear, great coördination. Maybe the signal direct from UK all the way to Falklands does not have so much interference from GUF as it does here (Glenn Hauser, OK, WORLD OF RADIO 1292, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** FINLAND. SWR 4-5TH NOVEMBER TRANSMISSION --- POLAR BEARS ON AIR! Thanks God! It's first weekend of November coming and it means that SWR's transmission is on again. Reserve Saturday 5th to your calendar. Or of course we start already 22 hours UT on Friday evening. And postal address for reports is SWR, P O Box 99, 34801 Virrat, Finland. Do not forgot handling cost of 2 Euro for QSL's. More info can be found: http://www.swradio.net Program schedule (UT + 2h): 00-02 TrickyTrevs Party time anything goes. 02-04 SWR Crew 04-08 Yökyöpeli - Nightowl by Häkä 08-09 SWR Crew 09-10 Rock'n Roll Radio History III osa 2. lähetys 10-12 Studiossa Rick Random 11-12 Studiossa Rick Random 12-13 MSDXK Lost Tapes osa III 2. lähetys 13-14 Ekorario. Jakson nimi: Taksikeikka. 14-15 Studiossa Rick Random 15-16 16-17 Pohjanmaa vuonna nolla. Olavi Letku ja Tenho Liiteri Väkevimmät iskut vuosilta 1992-2000 OSA1 16-18 TrickyTrev show 18-19 Progressive rock and other strange things by Esa 19-20 Lauantai-tanssit by Peeveli 20-21 SWR Crew 21-22 Saunan lämmitys by Häkä 22-23 Jotain outoa by Peeveli 23-24 Closing seremony by Häkä Frequencies in use are: 1602 kHz, 5980 kHz, 5990 kHz, 6170 kHz, 11690 kHz and 11720 kHz. 1602 kHz 24 hours 5980 kHz 22-07 UT 6170 kHz 07-12 UT 5980 kHz 12-18 UT 5990 kHz 18-19 UT 5980 kHz 19-22 UT 11720 kHz 22-07 UT 11690 kHz 07-12 UT 11720 kHz 12-19 UT 11690 kHz 12-19 UT 11720 kHz 19-22 UT (Alpo Heinonen, Scandinavian Weekend Radio, Nov 3, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** FRANCE. Re 5-188: Today at 0500, English was heard on 11995. According to HFCC files, 15155 is from Feb. 26. Regards (JM Aubier, France, Nov 2, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** FRANCE. There have been slight changes in the style of presentation of RFI's 24-hour service in French. An urgent-sounding, repetitive news theme has been replaced with a more melodic, gentler theme with some piano. The top of the hour starts with a minute-long tease of what programming will fill up the rest of the half-hour, after the newscast. There also seems to be more of an effort to emphasize specific world regions at the start of relevant half-hours. While RFI's printed schedule indicates some periods were dedicated to Asian or American news, for example, it was not really highlighted on the air as much as it is now. The :01 newscast start doesn't seem to be due to other use of the newscasts, as the announcer who does the minute-long tease introduces the newscaster live in the studio. There is no clean cutaway point (Mike Cooper, GA, Nov 2, DX LISTENING DIGEST) The news at :01 is of course the typical BBC and US public radio style, after a 1-minute tease about programming during the coming hour or semihour, which I always find off-putting. News should start on the hour sharp. If they want to do teases, they should be at minute :59 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGETS) ** GREECE [and non]. Contrary to Prime Time Shortwave, I believe that Voice of Greece has English *only* like so; 1105-1200 Eu Su 12105, 15630, 17525 1500-1600 Eu,NA Sa 9420, 12105, 15485, 15630 1930-2000 Eu daily 7430 (John Babbis, MD, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** HAWAII. Excellent transatlantic medium wave conditions at the end of last month. A highlight was on the 24th when Martin Hall in Clashmore, North Scotland logged 1500 KUMU Honolulu Hawaii at 1130. (Medium Wave Circle via World DX Club Contact via DXLD) I believe this was claimed as a UK first. Well, HI is not exactly TA from Scotland, but more like trans-polar (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INDIA. Dear Friends, The B-2005 schedules of AIR is now available in the official site from today at: http://www.allindiaradio.org/schedule/fqsch.html 73 (Jose Jacob, VU2JOS National Institute of Amateur Radio Raj Bhavan Road, Hyderabad 500082, India, dx_india via DXLD) ** INDIA. 4920, AIR, Chennai; 0045-0104 Nov. 2. Noted several weak 60 meter band possible AIR outlets the night before. Rechecking this channel tonight, clear and fair with subcontinental vocals. Presumed. 5010, AIR, Thiruvananthap.; 0047-0119 Nov. 1, subcontinental vocals, good. Presumed Hindi man at 0118 recheck (Terry L Krueger, UT Nov 2, Clearwater, Florida, USA 27.55.83 N, 82.46.08 W, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INDONESIA. VOI missing again from 9525, Nov 2 and 3 in chex around 1330-1500 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** IRAN. Voice of the Islamic Republic of Iran English schedule registered as: 0130-0230 6120 9665, 1030-1130 15460 15480 1530-1630 7330 9940, 1930-2030 6010 7320 7350 9855 9925 11695, (Wolfgang Bueschel, World DX Club Contact via WORLD OF RADIO 1292, DXLD) Heard in English on 7330 and 9940 at 1610 October 31st, 7330 weak and suffering from adjacent channel splatter, 9940 fair on clear channel (Mike Barraclough, World DX Club Contact via DXLD) ** ITALY [non]. EMR Relay on 5775 kHz, 3rd November, 2000-2100 UT. Good Listening 73s (Tom Taylor, Nov 2, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** JAPAN. Besides 1400, R. Japan in English is also on 9875 at 1500, but now it clashes with R. Solh. Japan was on top, tho poor, Nov 3 at 1523-1524 concluding Asian Top News quoting other stations. Fortunately, at this hour, we have a much better frequency direct to NAm, 9505 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** KOREA NORTH [and non]. Monitored via DXTuner.Com web receiver at Brisbane, Australia: The "Shiokaze" programme to Japanese abductees in North Korea was observed on 5890 kHz with their second day's broadcast at 1530-1600 utc on 31 October. On 1 November however, a carrier was noted at 1525 tune-in, under which a jammer could be faintly heard. At 1530 the programme didn't appear, and the carrier went off at 1532 approx - so either it switched frequency to avoid the jammer, or it wasn't on at all! (Dave Kernick, WORLD OF RADIO 1292, DX LISTENING DIGEST) On October 30 and 31, the "Shiokaze" broadcast was done 1 hour later at 1530-1600; on November 1 returned to the normal time 1430-1500 UT. On November 1 the station mis-transmitted Radio Australia for the first 10 minutes, then turned to "Shiokaze" broadcast. There has been no jamming for these 3 days. A Chinese DXer reported me that the broadcast was also well heard in Shanghai (Takahito Akabayashi, Tokyo, Japan, Nov 2, WORLD OF RADIO 1292, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Now (1 Nov [means 2 Nov?]) on the air at 1430 UT on 5890 kHz in Japanese; mis-transmission on 1 Nov. at 1430 to 1441 carrying R. Australia English (Nagoya DXers Circle, for WORLD OF RADIO 1292, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Hi Glenn, My good friend Mauno Ritola has pointed out that Shiokaze is in fact still on 5890 kHz, though an hour earlier at 1430-1500 UT. Sure enough, I heard it signing-on at that time on 3 November. Cheers, (Dave Kernick, England, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Quite a strong signal here in Victoria. Piano music right at 1530 but then it seemed to drop quite a bit. I could then hear some bubble jamming, but that seemed to disappear. Same male with a gentle voice and the piano music in the background continues. About an S7 to S9 signal (W. Salmaniw-CAN Oct 30, 2005, Jihad-DX via CRW via DXLD) 5890, 1515-, Shiokaze program to North Korea, Oct 30. Open carrier first noted a few minutes after 1500. Right at 1530 started their programming with piano music and then JJ talk by a male with a very gentle voice. This continues as I type this at 1545 (along with the piano music). Fairly nondescript programming. I'm sure I heard some bubble jamming immediately after they started, but this appeared to last only a short while. Initially about a S9 + 10, but has faded to S7 to S9 now. Continued until 1558:20 and off. Open carrier remains after 1600, but left at 55 sec past the TOH. Site reported to be from Angarsk, Russia (near Irkutsk). (W. Salmaniw, BC, Oct 30, 2005 in DXplorer-ML via CRW via DXLD) ** KOREA SOUTH [and non]. KBS World Radio Europe Korean 1 09:00 ~ 11:00 9640 16:00 ~ 18:00 7275 17:00 ~ 19:00 9515 Korean 2 07:00 ~ 08:00 9535 (Skelton) 09:00 ~ 10:00 15210 Russian 16:00 ~ 17:00 9515 18:00 ~ 19:00 7235 19:00 ~ 20:00 9515 20:00 ~ 21:00 7275 English 1 08:00 ~ 09:00 9640 19:00 ~ 20:00 7275 English 2 21:00 ~ 21:30 3955 (Skelton) 14:30 ~ 15:00 9770 (DRM [from where? Skelton too??]) French 08:00 ~ 09:00 15210 20:00 ~ 21:00 5955 German 07:00 ~ 08:00 15210 20:00 ~ 21:00 3955 (Skelton) Spanish 07:00 ~ 08:00 13670 20:00 ~ 21:00 9515 06:00 ~ 06:30 6045 (Sackville) North America Korean 2 01:00 ~ 02:00 15575 14:00 ~ 15:00 9650 (Sackville) English 1 02:00 ~ 03:00 9560 (RCI [sic, means Sackville]), 15575 12:00 ~ 13:00 9650 (Sackville) South America Korean 2 03:00 ~ 04:00 11810 English 1 02:00 ~ 03:00 11810 Spanish 10:00 ~ 11:00 9580 01:00 ~ 02:00 11810 11:00 ~ 12:00 11795 (Sackville) Southeast Asia Korean 1 09:00 ~ 11:00 9570 English 1 08:00 ~ 09:00 9570 13:00 ~ 14:00 9570, 9770 Indonesian 12:00 ~ 13:00 9570 14:00 ~ 15:00 9570 22:00 ~ 23:00 9805 24:00 ~ 01:00 9805 Chinese 23:00 ~ 24:00 9805 11:30 ~ 12:30 9770 Vietnamese 15:00 ~ 15:30 9640 12:30 ~ 13:00 9770 Middle East & Africa Korean 1 16:00 ~ 18:00 15575 (new) 17:00 ~ 19:00 7150 Arabic 19:00 ~ 20:00 7180 (BBC [BBC? meaning VT? whence?]) 20:00 ~ 21:00 7150 French 16:00 ~ 17:00 7150 18:00 ~ 19:00 15575 Russian 19:00 ~ 20:00 7150 China Chinese 11:30 ~ 12:30 6065 23:00 ~ 24:00 7275 Japan Japanese 00:00 ~ 01:00 11810 08:00 ~ 09:00 5975, 7275 11:00 ~ 12:00 7275 12:00 ~ 13:00 5975, 6135, 1170 (MW) 14:00 ~ 15:00 5975, 7275 Non Direction Korean 1 09:00 ~ 11:00 5975, 7275 17:00 ~ 19:00 5975 21:00 ~ 23:00 5975 Korean 2 10:00 ~ 11:00 1170 (MW) 12:00 ~ 13:00 7275 Chinese 13:00 ~ 14:00 5975, 6135, 1170 (MW), 7275 20:00 ~ 21:00 5975 23:00 ~ 24:00 5975 Russian 11:00 ~ 12:00 5975, 6135, 1170 (MW) English 1 16:00 ~ 17:00 5975 19:00 ~ 20:00 5975 (Website via Mike Barraclough, worlddxclub via DXLD) ** LAOS [non]. The WHR website now shows Hmong Lao Radio: 1200 Sa 0700 AM 0800 AM Saturday Hmong Lao Radio 7520 1300 Su 0800 AM 0900 AM Sunday Hmong Lao Radio 7520 Those local times are EST, so 6 and 7 am are a bit early in Hminnesota, unless the Hmong are early hrisers (Glenn Hauser, OK, WORLD OF RADIO 1292, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** LATVIA. Relays on 9290 kHz Sat November 5 Radio Six 0700-0800 UT Radio Joystick 0900-1000 UT RWI 2300-2400 UT Sun November 6 Radio Six 1200-1300 UT Good Listening 73s (Tom Taylor, Nov 2, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** LATVIA. KWRN Radio Nordland --- Dear Free Radio Friends, In November we will celebrete our 2nd birthday. On this occasion we will send a program on November 19th 2005 from 0900 to 1000 hours UT on the well-known frequency of 9290 kHz from Ulbroka/Latvia with 100 kW. It`s not a special birthday-show but we hope you like it. During the transmission you can send an SMS to following HL: 0049 163 6227837. It´s difficult to hear the station in your aera but we hope, you can listen us. The team of KWRN-Nordland Radio Felix Stein (via Nicolás Eramo, Nov 3, bclnews.it via DXLD) ** LIBYA [non]. OPPOSITION RADIO TARGETS LIBYA VIA SATELLITE, INTERNET "The Libyan airwaves have once again heated up with the launch of an opposition radio programme that seeks to build support within the country for Mu'ammar al-Qadhafi's overthrow," Clandestine Radio Watch's (CRW) Nick Grace reported on 26 September. CRW is the biweekly online magazine for ClandestineRadio.com, a portal on clandestine broadcasting and subversive media. The CRW report added: "Broadcast 24/7 from an unknown location in Europe, the Voice of Libya/Voice of Libya in Exile began test transmissions on satellite and the internet on 19 September 2005. "The programme can be monitored on the web at mms://64.71.150.30/radiolibya and on the Eutelsat Hotbird satellite at: "Downlink frequency: 12.597 MHz "Symbol Rate: 27,500 "FEC: 4/3 "Its main sponsor is the National Front for the Salvation of Libya (NFSL), a well-known exile group that maintains strong resources within the country and was once supported by US and UK intelligence. Between 1984 and 1990 the NFSL broadcast the `Voice of the Libyan People" from transmitters in Sudan, Egypt and Chad until the US pulled support for the project. The station resumed briefly in 1994 via satellite. "Plans for the new programme, according to a source within the Libyan exile community, were hatched during a major conference of the country's opposition in London last June and its establishment was included as one of the meeting's final resolutions. In addition to the NFSL, the station is also supported by the Libyan National Movement, the Libya Alliance, the Republican Grouping for Justice, and the Amazigh Grouping. The Muslim Brotherhood boycotted the conference. "A press release on the NFSL website announces the lauch of Voice of Libya/Voice of Libya in Exile and solicits reports on reception within Libya. http://www.libya-nfsl.org/PressReleases/3078.htm (BBC Monitoring confirmed on 31 October that the internet stream was in programming.) Source: BBC Monitoring research 31 Oct 05 (via DXLD) ** MADAGASCAR. See NETHERLANDS [and non] ** MEXICO. I have been looking for XEXQ 6045 for the past week in the mornings, but have not been hearing it. Nov 3 at 1407 there was a weak carrier on the frequency (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MONACO [non]. While I was monitoring Prague on new 6100 via Canada, I also found the 0400 Arabic relay of R. Monte Carlo on a new frequency, 6080, until off abruptly at 0420 Nov 2 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Radio Monte Carlo-Moyen Orient has to be labelled "France [non]" to be correct. RMC-MO is produced in the RFI broadcasting house in Paris since it became a 100% daughter of Radio France Internationale in 1996. RMC-MO is only a "brand" these days (since it is a wellknown name for the Arabic audience); the Monaco days are long gone (Bernd Trutenau, Lithuania, dxldyg via DXLD) Yes, I know, but for historical reasons I like to consider it MONACO [non] (gh, DXLD) ** NETHERLANDS [and non]. WATER SHORTAGE IN MADAGASCAR AFFECTING RELAY STATION OPERATION There is currently a water shortage in Madagascar. At the moment, the power supply to the Radio Netherlands relay station in peak hours is not reliable. Shortwave coverage is being maintained as far as possible by using transmitters from Flevo when necessary. Because the situation varies from day to day we cannot give information in advance about which transmissions are affected. If you normally listen to a particular frequency from Madagascar, and it fails to appear, please check other frequencies listed for that transmission (Andy Sennitt, Radio Netherlands, Nov 2, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1292, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Have been noticing frequent short-duration transmitter dropouts every morning I hear RN from Bonaire to NA on 9890 kHz in the 1200 UT hour. Much worse at the early part of the hour; usually the feature program in the second part of the hour is minimally interrupted. But the news and Newsline can be hard to follow as the signal drops away and returns after a few-words-gap over and over. Note that this is not the audio-only type of dropout we've been hearing on BBC; the carrier itself disappears. Is this a transmitter being turned on after a night of downtime for this specific broadcast? If so, maybe they need to power it up a bit early even if it costs some fuel for the generators, so that it is warmed upwhen the broadcast begins? The evening broadcasts on 6165 kHz do NOT seem to suffer from this; I'm guessing the transmitter therehas already been running all day long. 73, (Will Martin, MO, Nov 1, dxldyg via WORLD OF RADIO 1292, DX LISTENING DIGEST) RN`s only frequency in English to NAm in the evening is missing: zero on 6165 before and after 0130 UT Nov 3. What`s going on at Bonaire?? I just looked at http://www2.rnw.nl/rnw/en/features/media/practical/schedule051030.html?view=Standard to be sure about the nominal schedule. Yes, 6165 Bonaire is supposed to be on to CNAm at 01-02 (as well as ENAm 00-01). And there is no longer any second frequency. This page has always behaved strangely for me. When it first comes up, the inside frame shakes for a few seconds, I suppose as all the material is loading. I don`t see this on other websites. This happens on many others if not all RN pages with this middle frame. Now there is the notice about the Madagascar water situation at the top. But when I start to scroll down, it vanishes into a white space. Weird! Also strange is that for the past couple days at least, this page http://www.rnw.nl/en/html/wednesday.html where there are details about the Documentaries, not to be heard at 0127 on 6165, already displays a date of Nov 17! And that will be a Thursday. At 0215 I checked all three scheduled Bonaire frequencies: 6165 was still missing tho it is supposed to be RN Spanish; but 6100 with DW in German was going strong, and 11935 with NHK in Japanese was audible. Obviously relay clients get higher priority than RN`s own programs when one transmitter is down. A sad situation. At least for Spanish there is a second frequency, 9895 scheduled via Madagascar, audible weakly here. But is it really Madagascar at the moment? Is Bonaire also serving as backup for Madagascar, pulling the 6165 transmitter somewhere else? (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Glenn, this is what I got from RN after 0300 last couple of nights. Caught my attention that the Spanish Service on 9895, I read is coming from Madagascar but I got the same suspect that was coming from Bonaire with such signal. And definitely, it was Spanish what I heard on 6165, curiously after no Spanish was available at all after 0300, whereas sometimes on 49m, sometimes on 31m during A-05, now we got a 2X1 in Castellano for B-05 (Raúl Saavedra, Costa Rica, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) In the past I had similar experiences with RNW's website. At times I even had to restart my computer as a result of visiting rnw.nl. Real anomalies. Weird! Now I have a new computer and rnw.nl loads better. But I believe RNW can improve on their site design. They should learn from BBC not from CRI! :) (Sergei Sosedkin, IL, swprograms via DXLD) Or from Radio Australia. Their website has more scrolling windows than Bill Gates' computers. RCI's website is among the cleaner-loading broadcaster sites, IMHO (Richard Cuff / Allentown, PA USA, ibid.) For some reason, the Summer 2005 edition of "On Target" is still on the RN website. No sign of the winter edition. Quite strange, as RN is usually very good about updating their stuff. 73, (Peter Bowen, ON, swprograms via DXLD) I've not been thrilled with RNW's website ever since they went to that 3-part frame, and with material that "floats" over a frame (like those arrows). To me a webpage should just one vertical scrollbar that moves everything. That way I can use my page down button (or roller wheel) to read everything with ease. Yesterday, when I was looking for their B-05 schedule, I had to use the search feature because no set of menus seem to lead to the complete schedule in all languages. I do miss their old website for ease of use. Crumudgeonly [sic], (Kevin Anderson, Dubuque, IA, swprograms via DXLD) Best "SW broadcaster" website? All right, let's run with this topic a bit. In everyone's opinion, which international broadcaster has the best layout and organization on its website? I don't like Radio Australia's due to the multiple scrolling frames. I don't dislike RNW's as much -- because the frames are larger -- but it still doesn't work smoothly -- one must click in a frame to "get focus" (a Windows geek term) and then scroll. However RNW's website is more than just a resource for the radio programming. It's a resource about the Netherlands. I personally like RCI's website. Clean layout, no frames. One click gets you to schedule information, or to invididual program listings. A second click off the program listing page takes you to the program page for a particular entry. However RCI's website is not as strong a resource about Canada; the main CBC website does a better job. Now it's your turn (Richard Cuff / Allentown, PA, swprograms via DXLD) Frames! Should! Be! Forbidden! They are a blot upon the lanscape, cannot be linked to and are a poor excuse for design See Frames Suck Most of the Time (Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox) URL: http://www.useit.com/alertbox/9612.html and Top Ten Web Design Mistakes of 2005 URL: http://www.useit.com/alertbox/designmistakes.html The China Radio International English page is awful, trying to crowd everything into one page, and set for only Explorer browsers. Since I read everything in Blynx, the blind settings for the Lynx text-browser, I don't care for the graphic bits. W3M or Links add some simple browsers. But with the few staff for web-page writing, (too many use the non- standard Front Page if you look at the internal coding with document view or other options), the smaller language pages at China Radio do a much better, cleaner job, though they still use "English" words in the underlying coding, for example referring to German on the German page links rather than Deutsch. The Deutsche Welle pages are poorly designed in all their language services. So looking at one page in the English service might not give the flavour of that radio service's other languages. BBC has a WorldService bbcworldservice.com which is different from the internal (England) pages and from the World News pages that many link to. But then it all sounds so good to the ear, and that is the main thing. We only visit to get supplementary information, and the up-to-date (Ha!) frequency schedules (Dan Say, BC, ibid.) ** NETHERLANDS. A reminder about Saturday Connection --- Don't forget that the weekend has a new look on Radio Netherlands, and Saturday Connection launches this week. It includes a feedback slot, and we'll be explaining the reasons for the end of our mediumwave service in Europe. If you can't listen to the programme on Saturday, it will be available on demand at http://www2.rnw.nl/rnw/en/radioprogrammes/saturdayconnection/ where you can also leave your comments for use in future editions (Media Network newsletter Nov 3 via DXLD) Radio Enlace is due to resume this weekend after a one-month break, on a modified schedule already published here some weeks ago; including DX news from (Glenn Hauser, Oclajoma, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** OKLAHOMA. KXOK-TV watch: Enid`s channel 32 has now been displaying ``No signal`` in the UL corner of a black screen for over two weeks straight. It does serve a purpose: blocking KETA-DT-32 from OKC in the Enid area (Glenn Hauser, Enid, Nov 3, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PAPUA NEW GUINEA. On October 30th I found a signal on 7120 at 0755 best on LSB due to utility interference. I could hear music and speech could not detect the language, faded by 0805. Radio Wantok is here and the only other station registered is AIR Jaipur which is in daylight local time (Noel Green, Blackpool, Jihad DX via WDXC Contact via DXLD) Hi Glenn, Today I have been hearing this station on 7120 kHz at good strength here in New Zealand. It would seem to indicate that the station has a new and more powerful transmitter as I have never actually heard it here before, only in North Queensland, Australia near to PNG. I first heard it around 0930 UTC on 1 November on Tok Pisin and English with a panel discussion about how great Radio Light is and it may have been to do with the opening of a new transmitter. I heard it again around 1900 UTC playing music with the announcement: "This is Radio Light, the Papua New Guinea Christian Network" at 1901. There was a bit of sideband splash from 7125 kHz. I am home on "sick leave" until 21 November, although I feel fine after my hip resurfacing operation two Fridays ago. Basically, I'm trying to beat the boredom from setting in. I certainly won't be listening to Radio Light to help out with that!! Regards, (Barry Hartley, New Zealand, Nov 2, WORLD OF RADIO 1292, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** PERU. Quito 2/11 2005 Wednesday edition: 4299.69, Radio Bella, Tingo María. This new Perúvian station has now regular transmissions with music and greetings. On this my first recording with ID there is also address to the station. Is transmitting also on mediumwave 1040 kHz and will soon be on FM. Comments, photos and recordings at: http://www.malm-ecuador.com (Björn Malm, Quito, Ecuador, Nov 2, DX LISTENING DIGEST) At 1000 UT QTH Info: Tingo María, magnificently situated on the lush tropical foothills of the eastern Andes, is one of the entrances to the Amazon basin. Tingo means union, in this case the union of two rivers: the Rio Huallaga and the Rio Monzon. María is the name of a woman, who used to live there before the city was founded. Everyone in the region knew the woman who lived at the union, the tingo, of the two rivers. When the city developed, the inhabitants decided to name it after this woman: Tingo María. Tingo María is called La Ciudad de la Bella Durmiente, which could be translated as The City of the Beautiful Sleeping Woman: Tingo María lies at the foot of a mountain which has the shape of a sleeping woman, lying on her back, with an Inca crown on her head. The mountain is situated in the National Park Tingo María. . . (Malm`s site, with a photo of the mountain, via DXLD) ** RUSSIA [non]. PHILLIPINES, 9570, R. Blagovest via R. Veritas Asia, Oct 30 *1500-1513, 45444, Russian, 1500 sign on with Gong IS, ID, Opening announce, Talk 17830, R. Blagovest via R. Veritas Asia, Oct 30 0217-0225*, 45444, Russian, Talk, Gong and ID and address announce at 0223 (Kouji Hashimoto, Japan, Japan Premium via DXLD) ** SCOTLAND [non]. Here's an update on our plans this year for Saint Andrew's Day, Wednesday, 30th November, when, in celebration of Scotland's patron saint, we'll be showcasing some of the best music and personalities from our small country. Ex-pat Scots and friends of our country are encouraged to send us greetings and requests for any Scottish music to letters @ radiosix.com Updated times and frequencies: WEDNESDAY, 30th NOVEMBER 2005 0600-0800 88.2 MHz (Tawa, New Zealand) 500 mW 1700-1900 9290 kHz (Ulbroka, Latvia) 100 kW 2100-2300 5110 kHz (Monticello, Maine, USA) 50 kW Regards (TONY CURRIE, Programme Director, Radio six international, Nov 2, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Also this weekend already; see LATVIA ** SLOVAKIA. Radio Slovakia en español ha conservado el mismo horario de las 0230 para uno de sus servicios en castellano. La cosa es que los sintonicé por la nueva 7210 el domingo por la noche, vale decir 0230 UT Lunes 31 Oct. con mejor señal que la habitual 9440. Pero anoche lunes nos quedaron mal, solamente aparecieron en la anteriormente mencionada. Sigo pensando que es un delicioso deleite escuchar el trato al oyente de parte de esas "flores" que nos matizan con su calidez en el micrófono (Raúl Saavedra, Costa Rica, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Slovakia in Spanish at 0230, UT Monday, starting OK B-05 on new 7210, but absent UT Tuesday. Back again UT Wednesday with good signal favoring reception here in Tiquicia over the usual 9440 which have been fading for the last two weeks (Raul Saavedra, Costa Rica, ibid.) Saludos cordiales Raul, suerte la tuya por poderlas escuchar; desde el cambio de frecuencias en España a las 2100 UT por los 9460 sin señal las dos últimas noches, por si acaso intenté los 11610 pero sin éxito. La única posibilidad por el momento es escucharlas por los 9445 y 11600 a las 1530. Estoy de acuerdo contigo que es todo un placer escuchar ésta emisora; su calidez y ternura la hace muy singular, un placer para la escucha y una manera muy personal de hacer radio, creo que única. Un fuerte abrazo desde Valencia en España, atentamente (José Miguel Romero, ibid.) ** SOMALIA. Shabelle Media Network --- Dear clandestineradio, we would like you to change shabele.com to shabelle.net, we stoped updating this web[site] http://shabele.com --- now the only web[site] for Radio Shabelle is http://shabelle.net or http://shabellenews.com Thank you, (webmaster Of shabelle (R Shabelle Oct 21, 2005 via CRC for CRW via DXLD) If no work, try adding www ** SPAIN. Nuestro Sello, the program of mostly classical music from RTVE`s own label, had been inconveniently scheduled on REE during the A-season, but now I see that one airing is M-F 0505-0555, which is somewhat better, when on the air to Americas are 5965-CR, 6040, 6055, 9675 (Glenn Hauser, OK, WORLD OF RADIO 1292, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SPAIN. English transmissions from Radio Exterior de España are now to Europe 2000-2100 Monday to Friday on 9680, 2200-2300 Saturdays and Sundays on 6125, To Africa at the same times on 9595. To North America 0000-0100 on 6055 (Website via Mike Barraclough, World DX Club Contact via WORLD OF RADIO 1292, DXLD) ** SUDAN [non]. Sudan Radio Service via Woofferton, UK (per past information). 11/2/05, 11665 kHz, SINPO 34433, 1544 - 16 In Arabic. Articles narrated by a man, xylophone musical bridges along with Afropops to frequent ID's, News at ToH (including English sound bites), article on coalition government translated into Arabic, more ID's with postal addresses in Kenya and USA, internet --- http://www.Sudanradio.org & srs @ bbc.org --- more news of Africa, Afropop, translation (apparently of comments by Desmond Tutu), folk style music, multilingual ID, off 1700 (Mark Taylor, Madison, WI, Satellit 800 & Eavesdropper antenna, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SWEDEN. Radio Sweden tested in DRM on 13650 1815-1845 to Europe during September; results were disappointing and the tests have been postponed until further notice (Media Network via World DX Club Contact via DXLD) Reception of Sackville in Europe is always variable, at the very least they would need to use two frequencies for the service to have any degree of reliability (Mike Barraclough, World DX Club Contact via DXLD) ** TAIWAN. According to Chinese DXer Mr. Zhang Shifeng, Trans World Broadcasting Ministry, Kaohsiung has stopped shortwave transmission on 11940 kHz via CBS since September. This is due to the breakdown of the transmitting charge negotiation between TWBM and CBS. But the homepage of TWBM still lists shortwave frequency (Takahito Akabayashi, Tokyo, Japan, Nov 2, WORLD OF RADIO 1292, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** THAILAND. I got some information about VOLMET broadcasts by Bangkok Radio in Thailand. Bangkok Radio uses a 10 kW Marconi model H-1141 transmitter with omnidirectional dipole HF antenna. The time and broadcast frequencies are: 0000-2400 6676 kHz 1200-2300 2965 kHz 2300- 1200 11387 kHz all in USB mode worth checking by utility listeners (T. R. Rajeesh, India, World DX Club Contact via DXLD) ** TURKEY. Live from Turkey, Thu Nov 3 I checked briefly at 1413 on 15155, which was fair and fluttery, not as good as the days before, and besides, the M&W in the studio were gabbing about how tough some BBQ meat could be, so I moved on (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U K. OFCOM REPORTS CRACKDOWN ON LONDON'S PIRATE RADIOS | Excerpt from press release by Ofcom, the UK communications industry regulator on 3 November Ofcom today announced the results of an operation to take off air illegal broadcasters operating in Greater London. The operation began on the morning of Saturday 29 October to deal with the large number of London pirate radio stations that illegally broadcast over the FM radio band without a licence under Section 1 of the Wireless Telegraphy Act 1949. The operation has led to: \ 53 illegal broadcasters' radio transmitters seized; \ 17 transmitters and aerials disabled; \ 43 mobile and land line telephone numbers linked to illegal broadcasting operations gathered for further Ofcom investigation to trace the subscribers; and \ nine letters of warning sent to night clubs that have advertised events on illegal radio stations. Illegal broadcasting causes interference to the radios used by critical safety of life services such as the London Fire Brigade and National Air Traffic Services (NATS). The problem is most acute in London which accounts for more than 50 per cent of the estimated 150 illegal broadcasters operating in the UK. There is a direct link between some illegal broadcasters and serious crime. Ofcom raids on the studios of illegal broadcasters have uncovered drugs and weapons, including firearms. In some cases the cash raised through advertising events at nightclubs is used to finance the purchase of drugs for sale at these events. Illegal broadcasting also causes interference to legitimate radio stations, denying hundreds of thousands of listeners the opportunity to hear their favourite programmes. Robert Thelen-Bartholomew, Ofcom's Head of Field Operations, said: "Illegal broadcasting affects safety of life services and has links with serious crime. Ofcom will continue to pursue and prosecute those involved in this criminal activity." Ofcom has a duty under Section 3 of the Communications Act 2003 to secure optimal use for wireless telegraphy of the electro-magnetic spectrum. The Ofcom operation has resulted in 44 London illegal broadcasters going off air since the start of the operation. Between 25 October and 1 November (four days into the operation) Ofcom's unmanned monitoring station in London recorded a 57-per cent drop in the number of illegal broadcasts being made. The operation involved 18 Ofcom field operations staff working with 32 Metropolitan Police officers. John Anthony, London Fire Brigade Assistant Commissioner, said: "Pirate radio transmissions interfere with, and sometimes entirely disable, the communications systems the London Fire Brigade relies on. The interference makes it more difficult for the fire fighters to go about their daily business of protecting Londoners." Tim Doncaster, Head of Radio Investigations at NATS, said: "Unauthorized broadcasts on or close to frequencies used by air traffic controllers can interfere with the passing of vital information between air traffic controllers and pilots. They can also affect the navigation aids used as landmarks. NATS has very strong working relationship with Ofcom who act promptly to take enforcement action when any interference with air traffic control is detected." Paul Brown, Chief Executive of the Commercial Radio Companies Association, said: "Commercial radio provides properly regulated, socially responsible content to its 31 million listeners. Pirate radio broadcasters pay no copyright or licence fees yet they take revenue from commercial radio stations all of whom fulfil the terms of detailed licence conditions and who generate jobs and revenue in their transmission areas. CRCA therefore welcomes today's announcement of Ofcom's London initiative." [Passage omitted; list of broadcasters targeted can be seen at:] http://www.ofcom.org.uk/media/news/2005/11/illegal Source: Ofcom press release, London, in English 3 Nov 05 (via BBCM via DXLD) Not necessarily do all pirates cause harmful interference, as Ofcom would have us believe! (gh, DXLD) ** U S A. VOA Less News Now --- Looks like VOA has cut an hour of South Asia News Now, replacing it with music programming from 0200 to 0300. Frequency schedule on VOA Web site indicates no SW transmissions during this hour, which had previously been available on 7115 9885 11705 11725 M-F (the same frequencies used during 0100-0200). (Mike Cooper, GA, Nov 3, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. With propagation conditions as they are currently behaving, I wonder what purpose is following that nonsense presence of WBCQ as late as 0000 on their apparently-not-wanted new 18910, which would be an excellent choice for the daytime. I have learnt, without knowing much about propagation, that a nighttime transmission in the lower meter bands is useless, especially during the Fall/Winter periods. Unless WBCQ is trying to reach Asia and the Pacific on 17495 (am I wrong?), which anyway I barely receive when the sun is high above. I see other North American SW broadcasters leave the lower bands as late as 2200, so why not WBCQ follow the common sense? The lower bands have turned so noisy with the changing season that even the clear signal from Australia on 21740 just a some weeks ago, has totally vanished, as GH confirmed a few days back (Raúl Saavedra, Costa Rica, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Allan, Sorry to hear that. A lower frequency would have been better, especially in winter. Can you reconfirm World of Radio times? I suppose it will be on 18910, then, at 7 pm [EST] Wednesdays. Is Amos & Andy really cancelled? If so, will you move WOR up a quarter hour to midnight early Monday? (Glenn to Allan Weiner, via DXLD) Dear Glenn, Times are the same as before [except shifted for standard time]. Amos and Andy are still with us as far as we know. Cheers, Allan Weiner, From WBCQ Central, Nov 1, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Must have been another empty threat by Ed Bolton to pull it. 18910 confirmed on the afternoon of Nov 2, and a good signal. On the ATS-909 I kept switching between USB, LSB and AM, and decided it was mostly AM, but maybe slightly more modulation on the lower. It was still audible after 2400 for WOR repeat (gh, DXLD) ** U S A. Transformation Media International - Located in Oregon, this future station is waiting for a construction permit from the FCC. Plans are for four transmitters (power unknown) and they are using units they have purchased. Four antennas, three rhombics and log periodic, pointing towards Canada, Cuba, Mexico, and the Kamchatka peninsula of Russia. Rather than straight religious programs, they plan to do a lot of service and educational programs. They are setting up a website, URL planned to be http://www.transformationmediainternational.com (Hans Johnson, Jihad DX, October 20th via WDXC Contact via DXLD) We first had news of this back in DXLD 5-048 of March 19::: NEW CONSTRUCTION PERMIT APPLICATION FOR SHORTWAVE FROM OREGON Transformation Media International, a limited partnership based in Albany, Oregon, has applied to the FCC for a construction permit for a shortwave station near Lebanon, Oregon. The application calls for installation of four 50-kilowatt P.E.P. reduced carrier upper sideband transmitters, three rhombic antennas directed toward northeast Asia, the Caribbean, and Central and northern South America; and a log periodic antenna beamed to central and eastern Canada. According to the application, Transformation Media "intends to offer a variety of programming suited to the local target, foreign population. Such things as news, religious teaching, educational, comedy, and music will be included in the program format." Programs are planned in English, Spanish, French, Russian, Japanese, Korean and Mandarin. Michelle Brosnan, operations manager of the station, attended the recent HFCC-ASBU Conference in Mexico City in order to learn more about international broadcasting and in particular shortwave frequency planning (March NASB Newsletter via DXLD 5-048 via 5-189) ** U S A [non]. Radio Liberty/ Free Europe B-05 SW Schedules (Time is UT) Daily except where indicated. From web site Nov. 1, 2005 Afghan (Pashto and Dari) 0230-0430 9335 15690 0230-1330 11940 0430-0630 21690 0430-1230 19010 0630-1030 17595 1030-1430 12140 1230-1330 17595 1330-1430 9335 Belarusian 0400-0600 6140 7190 1600-1800 11925 1600-2200 9865 1800-2000 6150 2000-2200 7165 Kazakh 0000-0100 6135 7145 7555 0200-0400 7145 9830 11885 1200-1300 9520 15120 17680 1400-1500 15235 1400-1600 6055 15120 1500-1600 4995 Kyrgyz 0000-0200 5985 7595 11975 1200-1230 11660 13740 15345 1300-1330 7595 11685 15345 1400-1500 7595 12015 1400-1600 15345 1500-1600 7260 9825 North Caucasus languages (Avar, Chechen, Circassian) 0500-0600 9595 9770 11785 1800-1900 6215 7520 9595 Persian (Farsi) 0030-0230 11995 0030-0600 9795 0030-0830 9585 0230-0400 7105 0400-0600 12015 0600-0830 15290 17675 0800-1030 11845 0830-1400 15690 0830-1700 13680 1030-1230 17595 1230-1400 9555 1400-1700 9435 15410 1700-1800 7520 1700-1900 11845 1700-2130 7580 1800-1900 11500 1900-2000 6140 1900-2130 9335 2000-2130 9785 Romanian (Moldova) 1600-1630 7165 9725 1900-2000 3965 9725 .mtwtf. Russian 0000-0200 6115 7175 7220 9520 11885 0300-0500 6105 0300-0600 5955 0300-0700 7220 0300-0900 17730 0300-1100 9520 0500-0600 7175 0600-0700 9850 0600-0900 15250 0700-0900 11885 0900-1100 9355 15410 0900-1400 15130 1100-1300 15215 1100-1400 9805 11885 17730 1300-1400 11895 1500-1600 15130 1500-1800 7220 9520 11805 11885 1600-1800 6105 2000-2200 7265 2000-2400 7220 9520 2100-2300 5955 2200-2400 7175 2300-2400 6115 Tajik 0100-0200 4760 0100-0400 7275 9725 0200-0400 11795 1400-1500 11795 1400-1700 9695 11910 1500-1700 11705 Tatar-Bashkir 0400-0500 7115 9680 0600-0700 9680 12015 1600-1700 6180 9825 2000-2100 5860 7295 Turkmen 0200-0300 6160 0200-0300 7295 0200-0400 9735 0300-0400 11975 17865 1400-1500 9565 1400-1600 15185 15205 1500-1800 9770 1600-1700 11875 1600-1800 6205 1700-1800 9625 Ukrainian 0400-0500 6170 7255 9725 .smtwtfs 0600-0700 5980 7255 9725 .mtwtf. 1700-1800 9650 9725 11905 .mtwtf. 1800-2000 7155 1800-1900 9725 1800-2000 11905 1900-2000 7235 Uzbek 0200-0400 7190 9680 12015 15590 1600-1800 7555 9835 11740 12015 Albanian (Kosovo), Armenian, Azerbaijani, South Slavic (Bosnian, Serbian) and Georgian appear to be no longer on shortwave (Via Bernie O`Shea, ON, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. RADIO VERONICA NEWSLETTER, NOVEMBER, 2005, Vol 1. No. 1 AUTUMNAL GREETINGS TO RADIO VERONICA'S FAMILY AND FRIENDS Now that we are into our fourth month of broadcasting and streaming, Radio Veronica is beginning to make its presence known both in our local community on 106.5 MHz, and on the internet at http://www.radioveronica.us In October, we received over 6400 hits on our website by more than 500 individuals. Our aggregate tuning hours for the month was 1576 hours, with more than 400 people listening an average of 49 minutes per session. What we are finding most gratifying about these numbers is that it is not primarily the music programming that is drawing people to the radio station, but our news and public affairs programming. For you who supply programming to Radio Veronica, a hearty thank you for your part in our development as a voice for peace and social justice. And for you who listen, we invite you to show your appreciation to those programs which you find most enlightening and valuable by supporting them. We at Radio Veronica do not accept donations for our own operational costs at this time. It is largely a labor of love, social conscience, and the commitment of individuals involved with the station. Likewise, we do not charge our programmers for the airtime we give them. It is given to them so that their diverse voices can be heard. There are most definitely costs involved in the production of these programs, however. So we encourage you to financially help those programs directly if you feel so led. FUTURE PLANS One of the bright lights on Radio Veronica's horizon is the possibility that the station may become a fully licensed non- commercial station, operating in the lower part of the FM band. We are now looking into the possibility of having a full engineering frequency allocation study completed that would allow us to operate at much greater power -- in the vicinity of 1000 watts. This would dramatically increase our local coverage area and serve a greater portion of Montgomery County, PA with our distinctive programming. Even if that happens, our ultimate commitment will be to the small village of West Point, in which we are located. Our purpose has always been to be an open voice for our community. PROGRAMMING Many people have asked why our programming is so different from that which is normally found on local radio. To gain a full understanding of our purpose I would direct you to two pages at our website: http://www.radioveronica.us/about.htm and http://www.radioveronica.us/why.htm These two pages will explain to you in greater detail what we are all about. I will tell you at the outset that our programming is not for everyone. If you are afraid of having your own beliefs challenged, then Radio Veronica is not for you. If, on the other hand, you see the value in hearing dissident voices, speakers from outside the mainstream media, alternative news, and important hosts from independent producers, then Radio Veronica is the place to be. We promise you one thing: we will never compromise the cause of peace and social justice on our airwaves. Our microphones will always be open to those who seek to bring a progressive and alternative perspective to our world. For a complete listing of our programs, with links to our programmers, check out our program guide at http://www.radioveronica.us/programs.htm Happy Thanksgiving, (Rene' F. Tetro, General Manager, Radio Veronica (US), Website: http://www.radioveronica.us Email: rtetro@pobox.com Nov 2, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. Re USE OF PUBLIC ACCESS CHANNELS UNUSUAL FOR KKK" Many years ago, our local cable access station in Champaign ran one night a week of programming consisting of, first, Madalyn Murray O'Hair's show about atheism, then a Neo-Nazi program, followed by a show (called "Deep Dish" I seem to remember) aimed for gay/lesbian audiences. Talk about TV remote whiplash! (Eric Loy, Champaign IL, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Deep Dish TV still exists, certainly alternative, but I don`t think it is specifically gaylesb (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. WCRB, CHARLES RIVER FOR SALE While it may strike terror into the souls of classical music aficionados across Eastern New England, the news that Charles River Broadcasting has put its station group up for sale is anything but a Halloween prank. On Thursday, the company's board of directors agreed to hire Media Services Group to explore the sale of some or all of its five stations - classical outlets WCRB (102.5 Waltham), WFCC (107.5 Chatham) and WCRI (95.9 Block Island RI), as well as rocker WKPE (104.7 Orleans) and all-news WCNX (1180 Hope Valley RI). The board also brought in veteran manager Herb McCord (former head of the Granum group) to manage the stations while CEO Bill Campbell is on medical leave; McCord was already a member of the Charles River board. At least where WCRB is concerned, the move appeared at first glance to contradict the wishes of Theodore Jones, the station's founder. At the time of his death in 1991, it was widely reported that he'd created a trust structure to ensure that WCRB would remain classical for the next 99 years, leading many in the business to believe that the station (with one of only a dozen or so truly full-market Boston FM signals) would never go up for sale. Charles River, however, sees things differently. Company officials say it's become impossible to operate as a small group in the era of consolidation and clusters, and they tell the Boston Globe that when Jones died, the trust he created stated that it was his "wish" that WCRB remain classical --- but not a binding order. The board believes it can honor that wish by mandating that anyone buying WCRB maintain the classical format on an HD Radio subchannel, but leaving them free to program whatever they'd like on the main channel. If that's the case (and we have no reason to believe otherwise), it could put WCRB --- and Boston --- in the same boat as so many other communities where commercial classical radio has either disappeared completely in the last decade (Philadelphia, Miami, Detroit) or has been relegated to a lower-power FM or even an AM signal (Cleveland, Kansas City, San Diego, Albuquerque). Based on the 100000watts.com/M Street database, we now list only 27 commercial classical stations in the U.S., including the three Charles River owns. That list, in turn, includes a number of stations owned by nonprofit organizations (KFUO- FM St. Louis, KING-FM Seattle), by municipalities (WRR-FM Dallas) or by companies as concerned with the PR value of the station as with profit (the New York Times Co.'s WQXR-FM New York). Only three commercial broadcast groups of any substantial size own commercial classical outlets in large markets: Bonneville, with WGMS in Washington and KDFC in San Francisco; Entercom, with KXTR(AM) in Kansas City; and Saga, with WFMR in Milwaukee. (WFMR, which we visited over the summer, has New England native Steve Murphy at the programming helm and seems to be doing quite well for itself; WGMS and KDFC are perennial ratings successes in their markets; KXTR is a shell of what was once a thriving FM classical outlet, now relegated to a mostly-automated expanded-band AM --- ironically, using WCRB programming for most of the day.) So who'd be in line to spend the likely $70-80 million --- perhaps even more --- that the WCRB signal would fetch on the open market? While Infinity and Greater Media are at their market ownership limits already, two other big groups already in Boston --- Clear Channel and Entercom --- still have room under the caps to take on an additional FM signal. To that list, we'd also add Radio One and Salem, both of which have footholds in the Boston market and which have been acquisitive elsewhere. And we can't leave out Marlin Broadcasting, which has deep Boston roots (in the person of principal Woody Tanger), deep classical roots (it owned - then sold - classical FMs in Philadelphia, Miami and Detroit, and it still owns classical webcaster beethoven.com and WTMI 1290 in West Hartford, Connecticut), and which wasted no time at week's end making it known that it's actively attempting to buy the Charles River stations. Or --- and this is purely speculative, we'd emphasize --- could some sort of nonprofit ownership coalesce to preserve WCRB's format? The Boston Symphony Orchestra is already a part-owner of Charles River. (Its counterpart in Seattle is a key player in the nonprofit that owns KING-FM.) Then there's WGBH, which continues to have a commitment to classical music even as it tries to balance other programming on its FM outlet. Was the $4 million that 'GBH just spent on a new Cape Cod FM merely an appetizer for something much bigger in Boston? What about the other Charles River outlets? Nassau's just begun to make inroads on Cape Cod, and it's flush with cash (or soon will be) from the sale of its Lehigh Valley cluster in Pennsylvania, so it's not hard to imagine that two more big FMs would make an appealing investment for the growing company. We're not even going to try to speculate about the little signals in southern Rhode Island, where anything could happen, and probably will. But the big ticket here is clearly 102.5 in Boston. Any time a big signal like WCRB is in play in a top-10 market, the stakes are pretty high, and you can be assured we'll be watching this one closely as it develops (Scott Fybush, NE Radio Watch Oct 31 via DXLD) ** U S A. NBC NIGHTLY NEWS TO BE AVAILABLE WORLDWIDE ON INTERNET NBC News announced Monday that, beginning 7 November, NBC Nightly News will make history by becoming the first and only US network newscast to be broadcast as is, in its entirety and free of charge, online exclusively at MSNBC.com. As a result, Nightly News will now expand its daily audience beyond the limits of the broadcast television platform to the Internet, and beyond the US to the entire world. "This is the next logical step for 'Nightly' and NBC News," said Steve Capus, acting president of NBC News. "As the leader on the broadcast side, and with our partnership in the leading online news and information site, MSNBC.com, it couldn't be a better fit. We know that just as fast as technology is changing, people's lives are changing too, and they expect our newscasts to keep up with those changes. With this announcement we are doing just that." As the first and only network evening news anchor who blogs regularly (DailyNightly.MSNBC.com), "Nightly News" anchor and managing editor Brian Williams said, "Many of our viewers tell me they often miss the broadcast because they're not home in time or tending to their busy lives and families. This new service reflects the fact that the pace of our lives has changed. For all the loyal viewers who have made us the most-watched newscast in America, there are others who want to watch but can't. Now they'll be able to join us every night, when it's convenient for them." "NBC Nightly News" will be on the Internet beginning at 10 pm ET/7 pm PT (0300 UT) at http://Nightly.MSNBC.com "NBC Nightly News Netcast with Brian Williams" will be the same program that aired earlier in the evening on NBC, including breaking news updates. Past broadcasts will be archived on the site. # posted by Andy @ 12:20 UT Nov 2 (Media Network blog via DXLD) ** UZBEKISTAN. RADIO TASHKENT SCHEDULE B-05 English 0100-0130 7160, 7190 1200-1230 5975, 7190 1330-1400 5060, 7190 2030-2100 7185 2130-2200 7185 German 1935-2030 5025 Urdu 1230-1300 5060, 7190 1400-1430 5060, 7190 Hindi 1300-1330 5060, 7190 1430-1500 5060, 7190 Farsi 1630-1700 5975, 5885 1830-1900 5975, 5885 Uzbek 0230-0330 7215, 7190, 9530 1550-1630 5975, 7190 1730-1830 5975, 5885 Arabic 1700-1730 5975, 5885 1900-1930 5975, 5885 Turkish 0600-0630 15330 1700-1730 9540 Dari 0130-0200 7160, 7190 1520-1550 7285, 5975 Pushto 0200-0230 7160, 7190 Chinese 1330-1400 5040 1430-1500 5040 Uighur 1400-1430 5040 (Website via Mike Barraclough, World DX Club Contact via DXLD) ** VATICAN [non]. Surprised to hear R. Vaticano in Spanish on 9885, Nov 3 at 1608 mentioning that they are on SW, satellite, internet, and MW for the Rome zone, ``Dios te habla hoy``; 1612 ``Santo del Día``; 1620 ID for R. Vaticano giving website starting with only two double- u`s, listing frequencies as 1850[! means 21850]; 7305, 9605 and 11910, which are their evening frequencies, then music and prayers. This 9885 signal was so strong it had to be a relay; at 1628 EWTN promo. Maybe this is nothing new, but I had not been aware that WEWN ever relayed Vatican Radio, due to doctrinal differences, M. Angelica being More Catholic than the Pope, but checking the November Spanish program grid, http://www.ewtn.com/wewn/spanish/wewnspan11.asp there it is at 16-1630 M-F only on 9885 and 15745 (the latter inaudible today), ``Programa hispanoamericano – Radio Vaticano (Emisión matutina)``. And the Emisión vespertina is also on the grid, M-F at 22-2230 when the frequencies are supposedly the same. Then I see that there are contradictory versions of WEWN frequency schedule on their website. At http://www.ewtn.org/radio/freq.htm where English and Spanish are shown, we have 9885 and 15745 all the way from 1300-2300 for Spanish, but at http://www.ewtn.com/spanish/Frequencias_radio.asp#A%20partir there is no mention of 9885, but instead 11645 which I am no longer hearing; both dated starting 30 October! WEWN can`t even convey factual info about its own operations accurately, so how in the world are we supposed to believe they really know anything about something so intangible as the spiritual world? Checking Vatican Radio, http://www.oecumene.radiovaticana.org/spa/sched_ame.asp the morning transmission is originally at 1130 on 21850, but the evening transmissions on the frequencies above do not come on until 0100, 0145 and 0320, so how does WEWN get them already at 2200? Before leaving WEWN site, I searched the English program grid http://www.ewtn.com/radio/schedule.htm but the word Vatican does not appear anywhere on it (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** VENEZUELA. 4840, R. Valera, must have been cleaning out the file cabinets -- I had completely forgotten about this; think I sent the report or a follow-up in the early 90s. No data letter, "We are glad you could hear us from so far away on shortwave. We are no longer on shortwave anymore." V/S Director Miguel Briceño. A nice surprise (John Fisher-MA, DXplorer via DXLD) ** YEMEN. YEMENI NEWS WEBSITE SET TO LAUNCH ENGLISH-LANGUAGE SERVICE IN DECEMBER | Text of report in English by Yemeni newspaper Yemen Observer website on 2 November Sanaa: News-Yemen has dedicated a section of its main page http://newsyemen.net to daily English-language news updates on the most important developments in Yemen, ahead of its 24/10 English news service. The service hopes to become a major news provider for the local and international community. With an increasing qualified staff, News-Yemen will launch its English service website next month, dedicated to neutral and professional reporting and in-depth coverage of Yemen affairs. News-Yemen, owned and run by veteran journalist Nabil Al-Sufi, is the first independent electronic news service provider in Yemen. Within just over six months, the website reached the number one ranking as the most widely read and trusted electronic news source for news about Yemen. With its English service now under way, News-Yemen will be able to serve millions of internet browsers around the globe with genuine, high quality, neutral and objective news reports, commentary, political and economic analysis, economic and areas of social interest. News-Yemen's English-language news service is currently being set up by Optimait http://optimait.net which hopes to receive feedback from readers to help them provide the highest quality e-news service possible. Source: Yemen Observer website, Sanaa, in English 2 Nov 05 (via BBCM via DXLD) ** ZIMBABWE. 6612 harmonic, ZBC-2; 0204-0215 Nov. 1, very good but with bad 50-cycle hum. Pop-highlife vocals. 2 X 3306, though fundamental not audible (Terry L Krueger, Clearwater, Florida, USA, UT Nov 2, 27.55.83 N, 82.46.08 W, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ZIMBABWE [and non]. Hi Glenn, Voice of the People, 7120, 1700-1800, jammed severely from within Zimbabwe --- however this frequency is no longer in use by this station. Voice of the People, 11705, (from Madagascar to Zimbabwe), 1700-1800 heard this evening 2 Nov, with now a jammer on this frequency. I earlier reported that the transmitter on Madagascar had a 'hollow sound' tone, 31 Oct, that is one day after the B05 schedule change to it but is now very likely that this is a jammer located within Zimbabwe that is active but not totally effective. Also noted, the transmitter on Madagascar closes at 1758 whilst the jammer stays on air until 1800. Having monitored in much detail the exactly similar jamming of SW Radio Africa earlier this year it now is obvious that VOP, 11705, 1700-1800 is being jammed by Zimbabwean authorities. 73 (David Pringle-Wood, Zimbabwe, Nov 2, DX LISTENING DIGEST) UNIDENTIFIED. 11790, 1744 Oct 4, SIO 555, sounds like ``Radio Kitar` or ``Quitar``? unID language (Keith Knight, Nov BDXC-UK Communication via DXLD) Nothing at all on this frequency at this time in EiBi, HFCC, or NDXC frequency lists for A-05, nor in PWBR ``2005``. Was QBS Qatar once on 11790? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ LANGUAGE LESSONS ++++++++++++++++ Re INTERNATIONAL WATERS, 5-188: "Do Spanish speakers feel any sense of confusion or disconnect since hurricanes (a masculine word) have feminine names? Didn`t the naming entity ever think about this? (gh, DXLD)" Remember, Glenn, for the past few years, the names have alternated male/female, furthering the cause of Political Correctitude. 73z – (GREG HARDISON, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Not at all!. Same as we naturally accept, for instance: "ese coche (o automóvil), es un "Mercedes". On the contrary, such arbitrary translated expressions you use as "telasitio" sound horrible. We have enough with the Monferinglish ;)) (Horacio Nigro, Uruguay, DX LISTENING DIGEST) What would you prefer, ``sait``? (Glenn, to Horacio, ibid.) Dear Glenn, Some English words, mainly adopted from the technology are of difficult assimilation in Spanish, as it happens with other languages. In the case of website, what is used by now is "sitio web". Glenn, I stress the big effort you pay for SW/radio news. You work is marking history. These vocabulary issues are the natural comment to your multilingual proficiency which we all appreciate!!! 73 (Horacio Nigro, ibid.) OK, tnx, but ``web`` is hardly a Spanish word, and I feel uneasy using it in Spanish, when there is a perfectly good native word, ``tela``. I notice that just plain ``web`` is gaining in Italian and Spanish as the word for website. But the web is not the same as a website, as we understand it in English! I am aware that I may sound like I am trying to be ``more Spanish than the Spanish``. I am also waffling about whether to pronounce non- Spanish proper names with a Spanish accent. In the case of American names which I can pronounce perfectly well in American English, it seems strange to put on a Spanish accent, altho that is usually the way you hear them on Spanish language broadcasts. And when announcing in English, I try to pronounce foreign names as per the original language (gh, DXLD) DIGITAL BROADCASTING ++++++++++++++++++++ DRM, Digital Radio Mondiale transmissions continue to generate interference well away from the assigned 10 kiloHertz short wave broadcast channels, and this is causing many listener's anger. There is no reason to operate DRM broadcasts with such a greater than required bandwidth, and as a matter of fact, I think that DRM short wave broadcasts must be assigned a number of sub-bands, so that they don't continue to cause such harmful interference to stations using the standard AM broadcast double side band plus carrier system with five kiloHertz audio bandwidth that uses, when properly adjusted, 10 kiloHertz of spectrum space for each station. In actual practice, an audio filter with a steep slope above 4.3 kiloHertz actually improves the reception of an AM shortwave broadcast, and using a filter with a similar fast slope that will reduce the bass frequency response below 100 Hertz is also a very good idea to put in practice. The concept of isolating the DRM stations into sub-bands of the existing short wave international broadcast bands, or even assign new bands for them to broadcast, is now advancing among several telecommunications administrations, and already I am keeping a watchful eye on several DRM broadcasts that are on the air on frequencies that are far away from the 6 megaHertz band assignment, as they may be signalling the beginning of a trend (Arnie Coro, CO2KK, RHC DXers Unlimited Nov 1 via ODXA via DXLD) RADIO EQUIPMENT FORUM +++++++++++++++++++++ DAB TUNNEL EMERGENCY SYSTEM Nigel Dobson in the DAB Yahoo group spotted this press release on October 28th: RadioScape, the world leader in end-to-end Digital Radio solutions, has provided the Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB) expertise for a new DAB safety broadcast system for use in road tunnels called RadioScape TunnelAlert. When an incident occurs in a particular tunnel bore, the system is switched in with the effect of replacing the audio on all the DAB audio services being re-broadcast in that tunnel bore with a live emergency message, thus providing the occupants of the vehicles in the tunnel with appropriate instructions. Systems have been in existence to deliver this service on FM for some time but RadioScape is the first company to provide systems for DAB. Prompted by the Mont Blanc disaster a few years ago, a recent EU mandate requires that long tunnels (over 500 metres) must have an emergency broadcast system that will automatically change the in-car entertainment system to the emergency channel. There are over 2000 tunnels in Europe that will require such a system. RadioScape has partnered with Tyco Traffic & Transportation, a major systems integration company that specialises in providing radio rebroadcast systems, emergency radio systems and PA/EVAC systems for new and refurbished existing tunnels, to create TunnelAlert. RadioScape used its unique end-to-end systems knowledge of DAB (Digital Audio Broadcast) to create the DAB part of the system. The system provided by RadioScape monitors the specified on-air DAB multiplexes (received outside the tunnel and, in normal conditions, re-broadcast inside), dynamically updating the in-tunnel DAB multiplexer system to follow their configuration. This local multiplexer can then be switched in to replace the rebroadcast signal if an incident occurs, encoding the warning messages in real-time. In this way, all the DAB car radios in the tunnel switch seamlessly from the external service to the warning message. "This was a very complex challenge," explained Les Sabel, Vice President of Development at RadioScape. "We have patented the techniques used to effect the seamless and instantaneous transition of all the external DAB broadcasts to the emergency broadcast." David Giles, Business Group Manager for the Wireless Solutions Group at Tyco Traffic & Transportation, added, "The EU has recognised the growing importance of DAB in cars and therefore this is a key part of the specifications. Interrupting FM reception is straightforward and we already have systems that can do that part but DAB is more complex requiring the use of a multiplex so we brought in RadioScape. Their Software Defined Digital Radio approach enabled them to create, test and effect all the modifications to their standard equipment via software very quickly." The first tunnel to have TunnelAlert installed will be the Rotherhithe Tunnel in the UK, which is expected to go live early in the New Year (Nov World DX Club Contact via DXLD) AUTOMATION - GOOD OR BAD? Just how far should we go with automation in broadcasting? Surely it's OK if it assists a human broadcaster to do his or her job better. But difficulties can arise when automation totally replaces the human element. http://www2.rnw.nl/rnw/en/features/media/aut051103.html?view=Standard (Media Network newsletter Nov 3 via DXLD) KEEP PHONE OUT OF CW SUB-BANDS CQ Radio Amateur Magazine worldwide Single Side Band contest took place during the weekend, and I have received lots of complaints from CW Morse Code operators because lots of phone stations went down to the very low edge of the 40 meters or 7 megaHertz band, causing a lot of harmful interference to ongoing two way CW contacts. Reviewing the radio rules and regulations of several countries regarding amateur radio, I have not found a single sentence saying that phone operation is forbidden below a certain frequency on 40 meters, except on the very carefully reviewed recently Cuban Amateur Radio Regulations, that specifically sets aside the first 25 kiloHertz of 40 meters as an exclusive segment for CW A1A transmission mode. My personal opinion about this topic is that contest rules must be written in such a way so as to disqualify participants that cause harmful and deliberate interference to other stations, something that unfortunately happened during this weekend as the maximum useable frequency curve dropped dramatically due to the very low solar activity and lots of contest stations had no other choice but to move down to 40 meters in order to be able to obtain more contest points and multipliers! Item two: Nicaraguan and Honduran radio amateurs operated their stations during the hurricane BETA emergency, and received support from stations in Cuba and Mexico when they required relays due to short skip propagation related problems. International Amateur Radio Union Emergency Communications coördinations worked very well, with Areas C and D of IARU Region II cooperating very well. One of the problems that we observed during this and previous hurricane WILMA, was the harmful interference to the emergency nets by the automatic WINLINK PACTOR digital stations, that in my opinion should not be allowed to operate between 7025 and 7100 kiloHertz because of the technical characteristics of that system, that does not check if the frequency is or is not in use before starting endless loops of automatic calls. By the way, again in my opinion the very nature of the WINLINK PACTOR II and III systems operating inside the amateur bands must be reviewed as they are used more and more as substitutes for commercial traffic handling, especially by maritime operators that want to save money by using such a system instead of the satellite systems especifically designed for that purpose like INMARSAT (Arnie Coro, CO2KK, RHC DXers Unlimited Nov 1 via ODXA via DXLD) PROPAGATION +++++++++++ The geomagnetic field ranged from quiet to active levels with minor storm periods at high latitudes. Solar wind speed ranged from a high of about 560 km/s midday on 26 October to a low of 320 km/s on 30 October. The period began with a wind speed around 350 km/s and the IMF Bz not varying much beyond +/- 5 nT. This continued until late on 24 October when a solar sector boundary crossing was observed followed by an increase in solar wind speed and density. The IMF Bz fluctuated between +/- 9 nT early on 25 October as a coronal hole high speed stream moved into geoeffective position. The geomagnetic field responded with unsettled to minor storm periods at mid latitudes with a period of major storming at high latitudes. By 26 October, wind speed reached a maximum around 560 km/s before beginning a slow decline that would last through the end of the period. Several periods of minor storming were observed at high latitudes from 26 - 28 October. The geomagnetic field returned to mostly quiet conditions after 28 October. The period ended with the solar wind speed around 380 km/s. FORECAST OF SOLAR AND GEOMAGNETIC ACTIVITY 02 - 28 NOVEMBER 2005 Solar activity is expected to be very low to low. No greater than 10 MeV proton events are expected. The greater than 2 MeV electron flux at geosynchronous orbit is expected to be at high levels on 02 November, 05 - 11 November, and 16 - 17 November. The geomagnetic field is expected to range from quiet to minor storm levels. Unsettled to active conditions are expected on 13 November and unsettled to minor storm levels are possible on 04 November and 21 November due to recurrent coronal hole high speed wind streams. Otherwise, expect quiet to unsettled conditions. :Product: 27-day Space Weather Outlook Table 27DO.txt :Issued: 2005 Nov 01 2054 UTC # Prepared by the US Dept. of Commerce, NOAA, Space Environment Center # Product description and SEC contact on the Web # http://www.sec.noaa.gov/wwire.html # # 27-day Space Weather Outlook Table # Issued 2005 Nov 01 # # UTC Radio Flux Planetary Largest # Date 10.7 cm A Index Kp Index 2005 Nov 02 80 8 3 2005 Nov 03 80 12 3 2005 Nov 04 80 20 4 2005 Nov 05 80 15 3 2005 Nov 06 80 10 3 2005 Nov 07 80 8 3 2005 Nov 08 80 5 2 2005 Nov 09 80 5 2 2005 Nov 10 80 5 2 2005 Nov 11 75 5 2 2005 Nov 12 75 10 3 2005 Nov 13 75 12 3 2005 Nov 14 75 10 3 2005 Nov 15 75 8 3 2005 Nov 16 75 8 3 2005 Nov 17 75 5 2 2005 Nov 18 75 5 2 2005 Nov 19 75 5 2 2005 Nov 20 75 8 3 2005 Nov 21 75 15 3 2005 Nov 22 75 10 3 2005 Nov 23 75 8 3 2005 Nov 24 75 8 3 2005 Nov 25 75 8 3 2005 Nov 26 75 5 2 2005 Nov 27 75 5 2 2005 Nov 28 75 5 2 (http://www.sec.noaa.gov/radio via WORLD OF RADIO 1292, DXLD) ###